Beyond the Garden Gate
by luvdobby
Summary: Just a moment in Ron's childhood when he meets Luna Lovegood for the first time.


**Beyond the Garden Gate**

**This fluffy Ron fic came about with boredom from rainy weather and finding ways to craftily avoid working on 3 majorly important English projects. (I know what you're thinking: 3 English projects? All at the same time? Some of us are not privileged enough to have sensible teachers who just want us to go out and pursue literature through Harry Potter, and instead assign ridiculous busy work and numerous projects that all must end up having glitter on it in some way, shape, or form to receive an almighty A…) But, nevertheless, Harry Potter is still not mine, and all credit towards its creation in this fic are to go to J. K. Rowling, as usual.**

Mrs. Weasley always insisted that her precious Ronniekins never strayed far from the Burrow. But, soon his maturing age gave way to a rebellious streak in her son as he discretely unlatched the rickety garden gate. His lithe 7 year old body was now no longer visible to Molly's watchful gaze. She contemplated sending Bill out to fetch him before he could traverse too far, but decided against it, thinking a little fresh air would do ickle Ronniekins some good.

Plodding down the pebbled pathway in his Babbitty Rabbitty themed trainers, Ron embarked upon a delightful mid afternoon journey. The flutterby bushes waved along gently beside him sparsely intermingled with the flowering blossoms of begonias and petunias.

Upon seeing an electric blue butterfly fluttering up ahead of him on the path, Ron squealed and let out on a chase.

"Gotcha!" he exclaimed merrily as he snatched his clammy freckled fists around the creatures feathery body.

Clutching the butterfly, Ron continued down the path, which was winding its way around a sloping grassy field. While humming along to a Celestina Warbeck song his mum had been listening to on the _Wizarding Wireless _for ages, Ron stumbled out into the grass. Trotting up to an aged tree, he released the butterfly and began to scale the bark.

After several attempts to perch himself atop a dangling limb of the tree, Ron latched on to a branch and hoisted his sweating body up over the top into a crouching position. Still humming to himself he dozed off, nestled within a crotch of the tree.

Minutes or hours later, Ron had no idea which (and an even lesser idea of how to tell time in general), Ron's eyes snapped open, instinctively sensing a change in his surroundings.

Rubbing the bleariness out of his droopy eyes, Ron squinted around the field through what he could make out between the leaves on his tree. Nothing seemed to have gone awry, no havoc being wrecked anywhere. He was about to leap off of his perch when he peered downwards and glimpsed a pair of sparkling blue orbs gazing back up at him.

"Merlin!" Ron exclaimed, choosing an often used phrase of Fred and George's. "What are you doing here?" he asked, attempting to swing down gracefully from the bough, only succeeding in smacking his bum in a pile of dirt, though.

He stood up face to face with a girl of maybe five or six years of age. She was rather short and had a waterfall of blonde hair cascading down her back, the color of wheat almost. Her array of shabby mismatched clothes almost rivaled his own.

It was awhile before the girl chose to thoughtfully respond, "Exploring."

"Oh." Ron mumbled before beginning to turn away awkwardly.

"Were there any Nargles up there? Mumie talks about them constantly when she's experimenting." she asked curiously.

"Er, um, not any that I saw." Ron stuttered, trying once again to walk away.

With a disappointed sigh, her face fell crestfallen, genuinely disappointed by his lack of discovery.

"Sorry." he began, but he soon realized his words were not enough. "Maybe later we could go looking for some."

"Okay! I'm Luna." She announced before plucking a daisy from the base of the tree and began skipping away.

Not really quite sure if Luna understood his offer, Ron decided to follow his Mum's rules about staying inside the reach's of their garden gate, at least until Luna had the chance to forget about him. Something about her wise blue eyes and knowledge of Nargles sent jittery tingles up and down his spine.

Unlucky for Ron though, Luna never forgot about her escapade with the strange freckled boy, and was constantly reminded him on her numerous quests for Nargles.

**Well, I'm assuming I'll probably write more fanfics this week, for English is still a pressing concern at the moment. ****Please**** take the time and effort to review this story, because I assure you I will fully answer your reply and whatever else it takes to avoid **_**Great Expectations**_**…**


End file.
